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Mayor Zimmer Introduces Budget With Municipal Tax Rate Cut
** Includes Funding for Redesign of Washington Street and Sinatra Drive **
For the third year in a row, the Zimmer Administration is introducing a budget with a reduction in municipal taxes. The 2013 calendar year budget holds the municipal tax levy approximately equal to 2012, which will result in an estimated 2% reduction in the municipal tax rate due to an increase in the ratable base. The budget includes funding for the planning process for complete street redesigns of Washington Street and Sinatra Drive.
“Without the responsible rainy day surplus that we fought so hard to maintain, the $10 million toll from Hurricane Sandy would have been devastating to the City’s finances,” said Mayor Dawn Zimmer. “Just as we need to build a more physically resilient city, years of prudent planning have made us more financially resilient. After all our residents and businesses have been through this year, I am glad that not only will we not have to raise taxes, but that we can provide a modest tax decrease while we make investments to improve our quality of life, such as the redesign of Washington Street and Sinatra Drive.”
The proposed municipal purposes tax levy for 2013 is approximately $51 million, a nearly $7 million reduction since Mayor Zimmer took office in 2009. This represents a reduction in the municipal tax levy of approximately 12 percent.
The municipal tax levy makes up approximately 35% of a Hoboken property tax bill. County and School taxes make up the remainder, along with Library and Open Space taxes.
The budget will be presented at the City Council Meeting on Wednesday, March 6, 2013. If the Council votes to introduce the budget, then a series of public budget workshops will be held, and the Council can make amendments before adopting a final budget.
Together with the budget introduction, the Administration is presenting a series of bonds for various long term capital expenses, including parks and pedestrian safety improvements:
• Parks bond: $1.2 million to fund various parks renovation projects city-wide including Phase II of Church Square Park plus new slide equipment for toddlers, Stevens Park
playground renovations & Legion Park upgrades.
• Pier A Park bond: $2.5 million for structural repairs. The South Waterfront O&M board has agreed to pay for the payments for this bond.
• Municipal equipment bond: $260,000 includes $50,000 for a high water vehicle for emergency purposes during flooding, a bucket truck for transportation repairs and maintenance, and a salt shed.
• Pedestrian Safety and Traffic Flow Bond: $3 million towards ensuring safe crossing intersections near schools and parks and to alleviate traffic flow in Southwest Hoboken.
• 9/11 Memorial Bond: $500,000 for a storm-resilient design.
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For the third year in a row and even in the face of the enormous costs
from Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Dawn Zimmer has once again cut taxes. |
Yesterday’s statistical revelation of a second year of improvement in Hoboken from the weekend debauchery elicited typical reaction from the usual quarters. As residents on the whole heaved a sigh of relief, others mourned the loss of the parade and some bars and eateries joined them moaning the parade should be brought back.
The disconnect in reality should end with the second year of a parade-less lepercon bar crawl proving Hoboken holding a weekend parade is akin to giving crack to a crack addict. But this is Hoboken and as one councilwoman famously said excusing excess, “Hoboken is special.” Read More...
The City’s tallies from the weekend Leprecon event are in and there’s a strong downward trend in the number of compiled issues compared to last year and dramatically so from two years ago with the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Mayor Dawn Zimmer issued the following statement on the changes in the past two years:
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In the weekend paper, Councilman Ravi Bhalla dismantled a series of fabrications put forward by Councilwoman Beth Mason over months surrounding the legal appointment of Jim Doyle to the City Council.
Making clear the victory in Hudson County Superior Court should have ended the manufactured lawsuit over the swing seat on the council, Bhalla squarely shows it’s Mason and her allies who refuse to stop suing the people of Hoboken and have filed another appeal to the NJ Appellate Court.
It’s only one powerful correction made with the basis for the seat’s election, available in November. Of course Beth Mason knows this, but it has the sting of both truth and accuracy. Read More...
It’s the day after and the questions being asked among residents is what more Hoboken can do to make the markedly downscale Lepercon event more manageable.
Like the year before, it’s expected the overall impact on the City is reduced and a marked improvement from the years prior when the Parade was a dog whistle up and down the Eastern seaboard, a Hoboken mardi gras was in effect.
There’s no longer tens of thousands swamping the city from one end to another but the downtown area saw heavy traffic, if somewhat smaller crowds than last year. Read More...
Put it in the, “It seemed like a good idea at the time” category:
It could be worse but the Lerpercon hours are winding down. Crossing fingers no one gets hurt tonight. Patch says arrests now at seven. Last year’s total came in at 18 and the previous year with the parade saw almost three dozen.
Patch also writes ambulance calls are down this year too. 25 calls as of early evening in comparison to the far higher 64 last year with most involving intoxication. Read More...
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